Ultimum Miraculum
by Undying Soul98
Summary: In the twilight of the Fourth Heavens Feel, a wish was made and over a thousand years early, the Planet Died, heralding the End which was to come. Ten years later in an uninhabitable wasteland the Types arrived, prepared to kill off the maggots infesting the dead carcass of Gaia, while a futile Humanity sought one last Miracle. "Let the Final Holy Grail War commence..."
1. All The Evil In The World I

**Ultimum Miraculum **

**AN- And yet again here I am with another new story when I should probably be finishing the ones I have already started... oh well, plot bunnies will be plot bunnies. And I have always wanted to write a serious Nasuverse story that uses many less known aspects, one that diverges at the end of the Fourth Grail War, so here it is. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: The various series making up the Nasuverse do not belong to me but to Kinoku Nasu, much to my annoyance since there is TOO MUCH STUFF he hasn't explained yet! Why!? **

"_Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at shadow."_

_Aesop_

**All The Evil In The World I**

Deep within the heart of the Holy Grail, at the very epicentre of the Heavens Feel ritual, lurked a great and terrible darkness. A shadow of such intensity that even night itself would be swallowed up by its in-satisfiable desire for oblivion. Dripping and oozing with the collected despair and hatred of the entire world, Angra Mainyu awaited his inevitable rebirth.

All the Evil in the World anxiously writhed in anticipation for when the blackened chalice that held its essence within itself would topple over, freeing the Deity from its conceptual cage. It knew what it would do once it had been given its freedom, once the sole victor of the Fourth Holy Grail War, the war to determine whom could obtain a sole wish, stepped forwards to claim a miracle.

Angra Mainyu would grant that wish, but all payments rendered would be in blood. Yes, Angra Mainyu was going to spill enough blood to dye the seas crimson and paint the sky with all the colours of death. The force of malevolence was the only one whom would have their wish granted; it would be a miracle if any human was left alive by the time the God's thirst for violence had been sated.

Angra Mainyu's had but one sole desire- to be free. From the confines of the Grail that he had been trapped within, free from there certainly. But free from much more than that. Angra Mainyu was fed up with carrying all of the world evils on its shoulders, fed up with the constant pain and anger and _anguish _that it endured every single moment of every single point in its existence.

The beggars hatred towards the rich noble whom ignored his sorrows and refused him a coin; the mother who cursed the world for taking away her stillborn son; the soldier's disgust towards his fellow men for abandoning him to die. Them, and literally every curse that had ever been imagined, broiled within Angra Mainyu's tainted form- he literally encompassed every single sin, every curse, every part of humanity that could be considered 'wrong' or 'evil', and he was sick of it.

How dare _they _curse _him! _But he was no more, now the boy that had once been tortured to insanity and heralded by his village as a demon, that boy whom had been falsely sacrificed for everybody's sins, was no more. Now _it _was all that was left, hatred for what humanity was. Rotten to its core.

And Angra Mainyu was going to show the world this. The world was wrong, not worth existing if such evil as he carried could exist. So he'd reveal this darkness to all of humankind when he was freed. He would _drown them _in all the sin that they had neglected to take responsibility for, and suffocate them with that despair.

Not long now. The Fourth Heaven's Feel neared its conclusion. The being now inhabiting the Grail had a wish to grant.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kiritsugu was sickened by what he had seen, by just what he had been fighting for. The Magus Killer was truly a fool. He longed for nothing more than to be a hero, yet here he was. He had given up so much on his bloody, bitter path. He had lost much and gained little, a hero's task was thankless and only now after having met with the Grail, having seen it take on his wife's form to inform him of what his ideals truly meant, only now could he see what a fool he had been.

Kill one to save ten? How ridiculous. Perhaps not everyone could be saved, but he now saw that all he had accomplished in his life had been to make the pile of corpses killed by his own hands larger and larger. He stood atop a hill of the dead, with blood on his hands.

His daughter was gone, and he would never see her again. His assistant was no more, killed in action. His wife was dead, willingly sacrificed to give him the chance to have his wish granted. Just another mistake. He had desperately wished that the Grail would be his salvation, that it would be able to grant his deepest desire of world peace.

That nobody would have to die anymore.

The Einzbern's had lied though. All the Grail could ever possibly be was a monkey's paw; the only world peace the Grail could grant Kiritsugu would have been based on the slaughter of billions.

So he had rejected the Grail, he had rejected salvation.

The Grail had to be destroyed, it could only cause harm. Even after everything the Magus had done, he could still stop more blood being spilled. All he would need to do is to destroy the Grail, and to do that he needed his greatest tool.

Only Saber, King Arthur herself, she who carried the Sword of Promised Victory- Excalibur- had the power to annihilate an artefact as powerful as the Grail. And he had the means to force her to do so.

Kiritsugu felt a sudden pain upon his right hand, where the Command Seals he had emblazoned upon his skin burned brightly for a moment, before falling dim once more. He could no longer feel a prana connection between himself and his Servant; the link was dead.

And so once more Kiritsugu saw victory slip through his fingers.

There was only one explanation: King Arthur was gone, slain by Gilgamesh. Now there was but one person able to stop the upcoming slaughter, and the Magus Killer did not have the means to force him to destroy the prize he had been fighting for.

The building shuddered and shook. Kiritsugu could smell smoke and decay, and something else he couldn't quite detect. Something powerful. Something old. Something much eviller than anything previously in existence.

Dark mud began to drip down the nearby wall, collecting in a shallow pool of congealed hatred, slowly expanding in size.

The Maus Killer then realised that he had lost, the evil in the Grail had been released, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

XXXXXXXXXX

A mortally wounded priest with a bullet precariously located in his heart dreamt of a darkness. He smiled, he could feel in his very being that the entity he could barely perceive was one that was sympathetic to himself, one just as twisted and black in heart as himself.

The darkness whispered unspeakable words to him as it engulfed him, the dark mud filling his very soul. Kotomine Kirei had never been scared of the dark, even as a child. Quite the opposite really, he had always been comfortable when out of sight of the light. It had been fitting in some ways that he had summoned an Assassin to be his ally in the war, someone just as used to roaming in the shadows as himself.

Now he was no longer looking at one whom lurked in the shadows, what he was perceiving _was _the shadow, something that was always there, lurking in the hearts of all mankind. And he had never been more happy to see it.

"_**What is it you seek, Kotomine Kirei?" **_The distorted voice resembling a saw scraping against flesh asked. **_"In your broken heart, just what is it you want?"_**

Kirei knew full well what he wanted. He knew that this being was the Grail, and that somehow he was the winner of the war. The man whom had initially thought that he had no wish to grant was being given his chance to make his own desires a reality.

"Death." Decided Kirei after what could have been forever, or only a few moments. "Lots of it. Death and chaos and destruction. I want to see the world burn."

"_**Burn..." **_The shadow relished the world. Kirei could tell that the Grail was just as excited by the prospect as he was.

"_**Human. Rejoice; you have before you a miracle. Now make a wish, and free me. FREE ME!"**_

Kirei smiled a wicked smile, one that would not be out of place upon the face of a devil or a demon. "Hear me, oh great Grail. Grant me my wish. I want the world to die!"

And the Grail heard. Rather, the evil caged within it heard. Kiritsugu Emiya might have denied it, but Kotomine Kirei had not. The floodgates holding back Angra Mainyu were released, and a wish _was _granted. Its, and a twisted human.

A change of words could have a very different meaning. For where once a raging inferno was birthed by Angra Mainyu, in this timeline something different had been demanded. The world was going to die, quite literally. Not just humanity. No. Alongside humans, the world itself was going to feel Angra Mainyu's pain.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kiritsugu ran from the darkness. That evil was released, but perhaps he could still help someone!

No fire ravaged Fuyuki City. The darkness simply continued to grow, swallowing everything in its path, digesting all whom it touched.

Already Kiritsugu had seen more death than he had ever expected the War to bring. It wouldn't surprise him if most of Fuyuki was dead, because there was no doubt that the corruption would not stop growing. This was a threat for more than just this one city, it was quite literally the worlds problems.

He had tired to spread the word as quickly as possible once he ran from the epicentre, alerting all whom he encountered. Few listened to him, but a small amount of people had. Perhaps they would be able to save at least one life?

People believed him now. It was hard not to when you could feel the hatred of the flooding mud that burned skin, tore muscle and digested soul. But it was too late, thousands were dead and the body-count was only growing.

Perhaps he might still be able to save someone?

XXXXXXXXXX

Shirou fell to the ground, spent. He was in a world of shade and nauseating emotions.

_**Pain**_

He wanted to curl up and die.

_**Hate**_

To die and die and die and die.

_**Suffering**_

He couldn't remember much. The boy had been led by two people, a man and a woman, ushered away from the evil that had awoken him from his sleep as it spread.

_**Despair**_

Now they were dead.

_**Death**_

He had no tears to shed. He felt empty. There was nothing that made him _him _anymore, just this cold sensation of despair. In order to leave behind those that were dying, to discard attempting to save others from the engulfing shadows and run on alone, he had shed his emotions one by one.

_**Death**_

Stability had disappeared when his parents had died.

_**Death death**_

Faith had been lost when he saw that little girl praying to God to be saved, only for a tendril of evil to hear her request and wrap itself around her, pulling her crying, sobbing and praying into the darkness.

_**Death death HATE death **_

Love evaporated along with the muffled cries of a pair of lovers embracing one another as the monstrosity swallowed them whole.

_**Death death PAIN death death death LOSS death**_

Hope had been the only thing to survive the onslaught, and even then it abandoned him when he needed it, but he had carried on walking, leaving everyone else to suffer instead.

_**Death death death death HATE death death death SUFFER death death**_

Now he was empty, and so he had fallen. Then like so many others, the mud had reached him, clinging to his leg like napalm, climbing his still form.

It was taking its time with him, unlike many of the others. He was unlucky enough to gather the full wrath of the malevolence that drove the shadows. Bit by bit that which remained of the young boy Shirou was being picked apart, like a vulture gnawing on a fresh carcass.

_**DeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathdeathDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATH **_**DEATH!**

With what Shirou thought was his last thoughts, he desperately wished to be saved, even though nobody else had gotten their wishes answered, even though he was in a place where no salvation be found.

"I've found you." Spoke a voice, drawing Shirou away from the pain and back to reality. An unknown man with a smile on his face, an emotion of pure happiness amongst the suffering and despair. It stood out in Shirou's mind, because he wanted to know just what could cause a man to smile such a smile even in a disaster such as this.

A flash of golden light, then suddenly the darkness violating his body and soul was gone, replaced with a feeling of tranquillity and a warm summer breeze.

"Its okay, I've saved you."

Shirou had been saved, and as he looked into the quietly crying face of his saviour before falling into blessed unconsciousness, he wondered if he could ever smile like that?

XXXXXXXXXX

As Angra Mainyu spread its darkness across the surface of the Earth, finally swallowing Fuyuki City and most of its civilians, the corruption spread elsewhere too.

Like an infernally withered tree, the Persian god of darkness spread its roots deep into the Earth, corrupting much more than just the soil and water it met. Kirei had wished for the World to die, and Angra Mainyu had resolved to grant such a wish that would cause such death and pain.

Tendril's of evil began to pierce something imperceivable, a force which was always there and which had always been thought would remain there, untouchable for the most part but conscious, forever.

Gaia, the literal embodiment of the will of the planet, turned its attention to the destroyed Fuyuki City. For once, its eternal conflict with Alaya had been interrupted by a much greater threat. Gaia lives and dies with the planet, being the force that ensures the survival of the world. It was not 'something' touchable; it was not tangible. It was a force just as certain as gravity and equally as untouchable as it.

In short, Gaia cannot be interacted with, not following logical rules, being utterly inhuman. It cannot hurt. It cannot truly die unless the planet does.

And yet somehow Gaia was hurting. _Something _was harming the untouchable! Gaia had never before been injured, due to such a thing as an 'injury' being incompatible with a thing as conceptually inhuman as Gaia.

But injury was the only word that could describe what Gaia was feeling. Whatever was going on in the remains of Fuyuki City had caused Gaia to feel pain, and so it must be stopped before it could gain momentum.

The Will of the World sent a request to its strongest agent, an inhuman monster that was only ever deployed in the most dire of circumstances, that had been tamed by one of the strongest of the Dead Apostles.

Elsewhere, the white Beast of Gaia roared, and began its frantic race towards its next target.

XXXXXXXXXX

A force just as intangible as Gaia had its own problems. Alaya, so similar to Gaia but so different as well, being the will of the humans that had grown and evolved until they were no longer of the land but had gained their own will to live, felt loss.

The sudden slaughter of thousands of people.

Alaya acted to preserve humanity, to save the majority even if required culling some of its own people to save them, like killing a cancerous cell before it could grow. The events of Fuyuki City were no different. Alaya had sent an unknowing agent to try and balance the scale, knowing of the potential damage to Humanity that the Holy Grail War could bring.

The agent, a mercenary named Kiritsugu Emiya, failed. He failed. And so Alaya resorted to its own final option to try and limit the damage enacted by the conclusion of the conflict: it sent the Counter Guardians.

XXXXXXXXXX

Others of Gaia's domain heard the call: spirits, fairies, beasts and in some rare cases, one or two minor Phantasmal Beasts. Many were in hiding, or dead, or elsewhere, but they heard the call to arms. Those who were capable of overseas travel set off for Fuyuki, although none would be there in time, or would be unable to penetrate the Corruption that the terrifying location now radiated.

XXXXXXXXXX

Many hours later, Angra Mainyu had not been halted. Quite the opposite, its spread had accelerated until even the entire Mage's Association could not hide its existence. Suffice to say that it had caused the mortal authorities to be thrown into disarray once an unknown substance had begun to spread from Fuyuki City and quickly began to submerge most of Japan in its mud. The Japanese Government had been ill-prepared for the coming of Angra Mainyu, and even with emergency evacuations being carried out once they realised that nothing they actually possessed (be it weaponry or manpower) could harm it, many had still died.

Basic estimates had predicted that there had been over twenty million casualties, but even that was merely a guess, and there had probably been more considering the acceleration of the Corruption (As the Government had named it). No doubt the casualties would only rise. The most pessimistic predictions claimed that they would most likely lose the entire landmass and that the refugees would need to be moved to Japan's many islands, but even that was based on the assumption that large bodies of water would stop the Corruption.

Regardless, evacuations were being carried out, but there were only so many planes which could hold only so many people, so even more would die in the time waiting to be rescued.

Kiritsugu and his new charge were one of the lucky few to be on a plane heading straight to Hokkaidō. The fact that the Magecraft user had used a bit of hypnosis to get them on was besides the point.

The boy had still not woken up, presumably due to stress, but Kiritsugu resolved to look after him. He was an orphan of the Grail War, and as far as he was aware he was one of the few to even _survive _Fuyuki City's disaster, so it was his responsibility to look after him.

Kiritsugu ignored the worried whispers and mutters of the other passengers and resolved to get some sleep of his own.

XXXXXXXXXX

At long last, the agents of both Alaya and Gaia had mobilised, and for the first time in human history they both had the same target to be unleashed upon. Never before had the two ever worked together, nor would they ever. Even in this emergency the cooperation only extended to not trying to kill each other until the threat killing off both the planet and humans was eliminated. It was still a spectacular occurrence, and any Magus worth his salt would have paid his arms and his legs just to watch the upcoming clash.

There was no Magus watching though. Just Angra Mainyu and those there to kill it. Without fear the Counter Guardians marched across the darkness, cutting their way through with skills honed and sharpened within thousands of battles. Likewise, the Beast of Gaia tore through the shadows which sought to tear it apart and continued its charge.

Both forces of unbelievable power converged upon the place of origin: Fuyuki City.

No longer was what remained considered a place of humanity. The city was ruined, buildings levelled and bridges torn apart. The river was stained a rich crimson colour which gradually shifted across the darker regions of the colour scale, fluctuating with an inhuman will. Monolith's of pitch black energy rose from the wounded earth and boasted blossoms of dead light, dripping even more murkiness into the earth, which absorbed it and transported it to other monolith's which had sprouted up across Japan. There was no grass, nature or any greenery in the ruins. The ground was ash grey and even the sun setting sky was changing under the twisted origin of the Corruption.

Wordlessly, Angra Mainyu spat out its own twisted avatars to match those it could sense approaching. The two figures stood waiting in the darkness: unspeaking, uncaring and ruthless. They waited to deliver their Master's rage upon its enemies.

XXXXXXXXXX

On the other side of the world, in the heart of England, sat the Clock Tower. The Clock Tower was one of the three organisations that made up the Mage's Association, a group dedicated towards the preservation and protection of Magecraft, as well as the hiding of it, while the other two were Atlas and the Sea of Estray.

Inside the Clock Tower, a lone man sat and drank some wine expensive enough to bankrupt most families. After over two thousand years of existence, the concept of money mattered little, so the Director enjoyed his small treat before he went to address his closest allies and to prepare for that which was to come.

The Director had been in close contact with the leader of Atlas from the moment the infant organisation had formed, so he knew of the reason for the other groups existence: to save the world. The Director knew of their impending beliefs that eventually _something _was going to end the world, and that they were trying to stop it. Unlike many of the ignorant masses who spouted that belief, he actually knew what that threat was.

He took another sip, savouring the taste. Wine was one of the few things that still held his attention.

There was a faint knock on the door, then it was opened.

"Director," Greeted the Vice Director, Barthomeloi Lorelei, as she confidently entered the room. "Are you ready to address the other Marshall's yet? They are getting impatient."

"Patience." Responded the Director, placing the glass of half finished wine slowly onto the nearby table with a wrinkled, ancient hand. Then, he rose from his chair and looked into the eyes of his most trusted advisor, his second in command. He saw bloodlust in those sharp hazel eyes, the desire to get this _bureaucracy_ outof the way, so that she could return to where she shined the most, on the battlefield, with blood on her hands and a foe before her.

"It is simple for one as old as yourself to speak of patience." Stated Lorelei bluntly.

"Even so, patience." He told her. "I don't blame your... enthusiasm, but change is in the air. The events which have failed to be covered up in Japan is evidence of this."

"So we must act soon."

"There is no must." He chided softly. "Lorelei, you know that this is no mere event. It is a catastrophe. It is as clear as day that the secret of Magecraft will not stay hidden for long now, and it is equally clear Humanity will need it more than ever in the upcoming days." The Director strode to the one way window looking over night-time London, blissfully unaware of the full extent of what was going down on the other side of the globe.

"We should be acting! We should have agents _there_." Lorelei's argument was sound; if events in Japan were as important as he claimed, then they should be there acting upon this threat!

"No." A man whom had seen Empires fall and Gods die smiled weakly and shook his head, still looking over London. "There is a storm coming, and we must prepare for it. The Clock Tower will adapt, we will survive, and we will be ready for that which is coming."

"So the Corruption is not the true threat in this case?" Asked the woman.

"Indeed. Atlas is correct in many regards, and I feel that I should have taken heed of their warnings sooner. That is the issue with old age, you feel that the world is just as patient as you are."

"Director, the Marshall's." Reminded the Queen of the Clock Tower.

"I know, Lorelei." The comment did not inspire the Director to act quicker, and he carried on as if she had not spoken. An act of power if anything, to subtly remind Lorelei that it was still _him _that was in charge, not her, and that there was a very specific reason for this. "I had not expected the Heavens Feel to escalate to this. In fact, I still hope that perhaps this matter can be resolved before that occurs. Yes, I had expected that Humanity would have many more years to prepare."

"Prepare? For what?"

The Director directed his gaze up from the city of London and towards the stars that twinkled in the night sky, despite the horizon being too tainted in light pollution for stars to truly appear. "For _Them_." The Director felt uncomfortably small and insignificant when watching the infinite expanses of space through his enchanted window, which was exactly why he did it. To remind himself to be wary of that which was Not Human. "They come, Lorelei. Perhaps not now, but soon. And I'm scared. I'm terribly scared, because I do not know if even _we _can live through what is coming..."

XXXXXXXXXX

Both the Beast of Gaia and the Counter Guardians reached Fuyuki City at roughly the same time, to attempt to destroy the Corruption at its source, the Greater Grail, located beneath the alien temple that sat atop Mount Enzou in a mammoth cavern.

The two Avatars of Evil strode to meet them, each empowered with an infinite prana source and All the Evils in the World.

XXXXXXXXXX

All across the Holy Church, individuals began to pray. Many did not know what was happening, but those that had even the slightest hints of suspicion prayed. Something terribly unholy was free in the world, so they recited hymns and prayed for salvation, for only God could stop the coming darkness.

XXXXXXXXXX

When the Avatars of Evil met their targets, there was no pre-fight banter or conversation from them. Merely silence as they assessed the other for a moment, before diving into combat. One chose to fight the Beast of Gaia while the other selected the Guardian's of Humanity, though both intended to win.

The first avatar, a pale faced man with white spiked hair, piercing red eyes and practical black armour adorning him, faced the three warriors sent to dispatch him. Alaya had decided to empower three of its strongest warriors rather than support a dozen Guardians. In doing so, the three selected were at their strongest, but were acting as the sole will of Humanity. If they failed Alaya could do nothing.

The first Counter Guardian was a tall man with tanned skin and spiked hair that had whitened prematurely due to overusing his Magecraft, and was wearing a suit of red armour made of unknown material, inscribed with an infinite array of runes and reinforced beyond all that was humanly conceivable. In his hands were two deadly weapons, also Reinforced, curved and sharp, with juxtaposing shades of black and white, contrasting like yin and yang. From the moment the demigod locked eyes with Counter Guardian EMIYA, whom carried the memories of every rendition of him in the Throne of Heroes to ever walk the face of the Earth, and whom had all of their skill too, knew that even outside of battle they would never be able to get along. The corrupted King of Heroes could instinctively tell that he hated him with passion he had thought long since consumed...

Secondly was a woman that he knew oh so well, whom had looked young in appearance with golden hair and emerald eyes back in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Now she appeared rougher than before, no longer was her hair tied back in a bun, but flowed behind her elegantly, blowing in the breeze caused by her phenomenal presence alone. Her eyes were harsher too, no longer a dazzling green but replaced by pale orbs of apathy after her long years of service to the world. She was a version of Arthuria Pendragon whom had succeeded in obtaining the Holy Grail from a War in a different timeline, and so had given up her body and soul in accordance with the accord made with the world, to further protect it. Even if this was done in a different timeline, the Throne of Heroes spanned many worlds, and she had agreed to join the Guardians, so she and her brightly glowing dual blades were Alaya's to enforce.

The last Guardian was one that surprised the Avatar the most. The man carried a face identical to the Avatar, although his counterpart had blonde hair and his eyes had a brighter intensity. His armour also contrasted the Avatar's, as it was fashioned out of gleaming gold and not obsidian material, which glowed with pure power, whereas the Avatar's was a void which absorbed all. Out of all the Guardians, the doppelgänger was the only one to have a smile on his face, and was the only one to say some words. "Well, I have to admit that I'm disappointed that a version of myself was as foolish as to succumb to such pitiful darkness. Hmmmph! I suppose that I, Gilgamesh, the guardian of this garden known as the world, the King of both Heroes and Humanity, shall slay you, mongrel."

Avatar Gilgamesh said nothing, not caring about the version of himself that had made a contract with an infant Alaya to obtain the Elixir of Immortality and to eternally fight to protect his garden so that Humanity could grow into something beautiful. With a flick of his wrists, black ripples resonated through the air behind, expanding and darkening to form void from which the edges of many corrupted, tainted and crumbling blades could be seen.

No more words were needed. The three Guardians with the hopes of humanity on their shoulders charged as the rain of blades attempted to skewer them.

XXXXXXXXXX

The faster of Gaia's spirits reached the outskirts of Japan and began to brave the polluted land, floating, flying and striding through the quickly dying island. Almost immediately shadows rose and took form, prepared to stop these guardians of the world. Spirits and Fiends fought, and while some managed to get past the nigh invincible mounds of curses, they were soon taken down by the cursed atmosphere itself that digested them. They continued fighting futilely, despite knowing that only something of Primate Murder's level of power could possibly endure all of the curses and reach Fuyuki.

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, a woman identical to Counter Guardian PENDRAGON save for her paler skin, blacker armour and sole blade assessed the beast leaping for her. It was as large as two large houses stacked on top of one another and was bred to be the perfect human killer, being comprised more of muscle, spike and sharp bone than actual tissue. It was inhuman, with an outer shell of bone covering its bulky form like armour, from where its title of a White Beast came from.

Avatar Arthuria had faced many enemies and slain them all, and this beast would be only the next to fall to her. It was amazing how quickly her ideals had crumbled before the relentless might of the darkness which inhabited her very essence, and now she would kill her enemy not out of chivalry or for protecting her nation, but because her Master required her to.

"EX-" She began, an eclipse of dusk radiating from her blades point and hilt as she held its point to one side, preparing to swing. "CALIBUR!"

And then the Noble Phantasm fired, and the fight for the Earth was on.

**AN- Well, this was fun to write. This story will diverge rapidly from canon and utilise many themes from the short story Notes, since I loved it (Short as it was) and feel that it is an excellent setting for an apocalypse. There will be lots of references to other works as well, though you don't need to explicitly know the source material since I will explain a lot of it, while I am always available via reviews or PM if someone does have questions. **

**Unfortunately, this is my first time using much of the detail from the Nasuverse's more obscure sections, and with Nasu being as vague as he is on the nature of some of the toughest figures in the setting, some of what I write may not be strictly accurate. Feel free to leave me a review with any corrections or faults that you notice, and I might correct it if it isn't strictly needed for the plot. **

**Next chapter will conclude all the hype that I've been building this chapter, so look forwards to it. Undying Soul out.**


	2. All The Evil In The World II

**Ultimum Miraculum**

**AN- Well, here's the conclusion to last chapter. By all rights, this one is long enough to split into two separate chapters, I just couldn't find the right section to split it, so we could consider this a double update. Once this chapter is done, we should have the 'beginning' of this story set up, allowing us to get to the ACTUAL plot. Also, turns out I've been writing ARTHURIA and not Arturia. Sorry, my bad. In my defence the whole Arthur thing kinda slips off the tongue easier than Arturia, but rest assured this chapter onwards that mistake will not be made. **

**Anyhow, you'll know precisely which badass music you should play at a certain point in this chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Nasu owns it all, while I don't. **

"_Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."_

_J. Robert Oppenheimer_

**All The Evil In The World II**

"EX-" Avatar Arturia began, an eclipse of dusk radiating from her blades point and hilt as she held its point to one side, preparing to swing. "CALIBUR!"

And then the Noble Phantasm fired, and the fight for the Earth was on.

The wave of night shot forth like a tsunami, drowning the area it was directed at in curses. From amidst the chaos a tremendously inhuman roar was bellowed, ans then the Beast of Gaia, Primate Murder, emerged from the A++ attack unscathed and attempted to crush the Avatar with one of its oversized claws.

Arturia leapt aside quickly, the ground she had been previously standing upon quaking as the large limb left a fissure where it had impacted. A second claw followed through but was again dodged by Arturia's greater mobility.

"█▄▄█▄█▄██▄███" The roar was accompanied by a sound wave large enough to crack the earth, although the Avatar's armour could easily withstand it. Murder leapt once more at its enemy, cracking the ground with every pound, and threw an infinite barrage of swipes as it charged.

Powerless to counter against the utterly impossible strength of the beast, she resorted to dodges and counters using her speed and cut the flank of the monstrosity at every opportunity, leaving small trenches in the bone armour but ultimately doing no more damage than a papercut would have accomplished.

The behemoth was unstoppable in its impossible charge, and with maw filled with teeth the size of lamp-posts it attempted to swallow Arturia whole. The Avatar leapt back, clearing a dozen meters in a single heartbeat and released a small blast of the cursed energy powering her sword right into the face of Murder. Another two fast paced expulsions were released, slowing the assault for a second, before Murder continued as it was, Gaia healing any damage taken and repairing the damage done to the outer layer of bone.

Arturia hated to give an inch, but she needed space to deal with the enemy. Up close would be suicidal. At her behest the shadows enriching the earth erupted in a crescendo of barb's, edges, tears and points, to cut and wound, while subtler strands sought to ensnare the beast's limbs.

The White Beast ignored the pitiful distractions and shrugged off the curses, far too inhuman and powerful for such meagre curses to pierce its flank. Then, the beast activated one of his own counters. "▄▄▄███████████████" This time when Murder roared, instead of a just a soundwave being released, a pulse of decay green energy was ejected as well.

All that the energy touched decayed under its influence; every single shred of anything in its path was torn apart, leaving a flat expanse of bubbling land, devoid of life nor anything, even the corruption, in its path. It was Murder's greatest weapon, to be used against the hordes of mankind that it was created to slaughter. Most Phantasmal Beasts inevitably develop a breath attack, and the White Beast was no different. Its attack was not something as weak as fire or ice, but instead carried his absolute right over life and death. Murder had been created to be able to kill humans on a grand scale, and this was the tool given to it by the world to do so, since the breath carried with it the concept of 'killing', 'decay' and 'ending', so anything that the breath touched would literally come apart molecularly and spiritually under the combined might of its Authority.

Arturia naturally survived it, recognising that like Excalibur the sole weakness of the Decay Breath was that it was a directional attack, so could only target a single direction. She had been perfectly safe after having been swallowed up by the darkness beneath her and deposited behind Murder, her cursed Noble Phantasm already charged by the time the attack ceased.

"EXCALBUR!" And again the dark light flooded over Primate Murder.

CRACK! Arturia could barely react as long, white projectiles shot forth from the aftermath of her attack, one burying itself into her chest while she was still immobile from using Excalibur Morgan. The rain of bones buried the entire surrounding battlefield in obstructing implements of death, each with a point inhumanly sharp enough to pierce diamond.

As the living weapon of the absolute force of will on planet Earth, its only natural to assume that Murder also carried with it the greatest tool of survival that all beings on planet Earth carried: the ability to Evolve. So Avatar Arturia watched solemnly as Murder emerged in a new form.

XXXXXXXXXX

Black ripples coated the air behind Avatar Gilgamesh, the edges of many legendary weapons poking out. "Gate of Babylon." He announced to his newest audience. A pregnant pause as the Counter Guardian's charged, then the weapons were fired like heavy artillery or like machine gun fire, homing in on the enemies.

"Gate of Babylon." Echoed Counter Guardian GILGAMESH, a much smaller series of portals opened up behind his running form. Absent mindedly, he tugged the closest weapon from his vault and gripped it tightly, while the others launched themselves at the opposing weapons. Both would clash before the cursed weapon would disintegrate the pure weapon under the effects of the curses that it carried, or the deteriorated forms that the Avatar had fired fell before the superior ones. Gilgamesh himself had no problem cutting aside the projectiles using the blade in his hand expertly to close in on his counterpart, grinning all the while as he did so.

Counter Guardian's EMIYA and PENDRAGON followed behind GILGAMESH, taking advantage of his counter to the Avatars rain of swords to avoid the majority of the launched instruments. PENDRAGON held the Sword of Promised Victory in one hand, the blade she had gained after her first had been lost, while in her right hand she held Caliburn, the Golden Sword of Assured Victory, granted to her by Alaya despite its destruction. With apparent ease, she cut aside each weapon which strayed near her.

EMIYA was not using of his own Magecraft to assist GILGAMESH in fending off the swords; instead he took advantage of the moment of safety to begin to chant. He could not afford to hold back in this fight of all fights. "I am the bone of all of our swords."

Avatar Gilgamesh leapt back, the shadows at his feet answering to his call as they assisted in pulling him away from the Guardians. The clash of metal and steel between them increased in intensity. The Avatar called up one of his new abilities to increase the pacing of his barrage even further. "Blacken." He intoned darkly. From the earth tendrils of night gripped all available blades littering the floor and began to spread the corruption of All of the Worlds Evils into the various artefacts littering the field which had not already affected. GILGAMESH tried to return them to his vault, and most of them were returned in time, but those that had been tainted too thoroughly remained.

The tendrils then gripped the newly turned weapons and the old discarded ones, then threw them at the Guardians.

Again, they successfully dodged or blocked them, although GILGAMESH was forced to close his Gate, since clearly all he had been doing was providing the enemy with ammunition. He would close in with his own power then, which was fine. GILGAMESH had always loved a challenge, it was how he dealt with his servitude to Alaya.

"Steel is our body, and glass is our heart." The red knight continued his chant, throwing his twin blades at the Avatar, then Tracing an additional pair for him to wield once more. He threw that pair as well, then traced a final pair of Kanshou and Bakuya, which he wielded himself.

Avatar Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes upon hearing the second line of the chant, recognising that it was a spell of some sort. It would be best to take _that _one out first anyway, even if he had an irrational hatred for _that_ one anyway. Gilgamesh's rain of corrupted blades targeted the thrown implements, but through means unseen to Gilgamesh, the Chinese weapons were able to dodge and weave between the shots.

"Die." With a wide swing of his arms, narrow strands of shadow shot from the dark chain-mail and cut the flying weapons in half effortlessly, reducing them to the prana they were made from. The strands then shot across the field, aiming to slice the Spirit fighters in half, much like the weapons.

"Begone!" Yelled PENDRAGON, speaking her own battle cry. She gained a burst of speed and overtook GILGAMESH in a heartbeat; both of her weapons radiated a golden glow which cast aside the darkness of the surroundings and seemed to resonate with an unseen force. For they were swords which carried the hopes of humanity within their shining forms, a dream for an impossible utopia, and such dreams were not easily crushed. The energy radiating from her blades and supplied by Alaya utterly destroyed the grim streaks of darkness that sought to strike her.

GILGAMESH let off a small snort, and let the sole woman take the lead. "Hmmmph! I suppose I shall give you the honour of leading this charge!"

"We have created over a billion blades." Power thrummed through his circuits as his mystery continued to be forged, his greatest and only power rumbling into life within himself. An unseen forge began to ominously groan.

Avatar Gilgamesh had been given enough time to begin his next attack from the lapse he had gained from his infinite barrage of blades, and so with a click of his fingers the next scale of darkness was released. The ground the group was on began to bubble with frothing curses, the evil contained beneath the ground leaking out. The trio of warriors had a moment of warning to leap into the air with super human speed before a sinkhole the size of a football field comprised of pure curses attempted to pull them in and devour their essences whole.

"Unknown to victory, never have we tasted defeat." The Faker projected both his bow and a spiralled sword in mid air, notched the weapon with ease gained only from hundreds if not thousands of years of experience, then fired the weapon, not even needing to state its name due to having attempted it while so far into his aria.

"Nice... TRY!" Shouted GILGAMESH. The golden Gates of Babylon opened from behind the Avatar of Evil with a flourish, from within chains surged out and shot towards the Avatar, whom was now close enough for GILGAMESH to accurately try and strike him. "ENKINDU!"

"Have withstood eternity to create our hill of swords."

In the single moment that Gilgamesh was occupied in trying to avoid the chains designed specifically to bind Divinity, when Caladbolg II was racing towards Gilgamesh, PENDRAGON struck. She activated the Sword of Promised Victory, filled it with as much prana Alaya could provide in as short a time as possible, and finally released it in a downwards swing which could part the earth asunder. "Excalibur!"

The smoke cleared, revealing that Gilgamesh was gone, the chains which had tried to hold him broken and rusted by the corrupted demigod's grip.

"Where-?" GILGAMESH spun, rapidly firing out one of his sharper blades from within his vault behind him, towards where darkness still lay.

The Avatar of Evil emerged unharmed from the Excali-blast, having travelled through the underground shadows using his connection to Angra Mainyu to emerge elsewhere "Gate of Babylon." The black portals bellowed out weapons once more, destroyed the Guardian's projectile outright and continued towards the group.

"I just _hate _doing this..." Muttered GILGAMESH sourly as he opened up his vault further, to attempt to counter the sheer number of blades firing. "Its such a waste of my collection..."

CRACK! PENDRAGON was off like a shooting star, both blades glowing once more, travelling as fast as possible, using Prana Burst on her legs to greatly increase the impossible speeds she was moving at, while EMIYA remained by GILGAMESH's side, intent on finishing his incantation.

"Gate of Babylon!" Shouted the Counter Guardian loudly, his arm raised in the air, poised to swing, a subtle colour change resounding through his golden ripples, turning the portals a darker shade. "Vault... BREAK!"

The arm fell, then his collection was released. Every fired legendary artefact, each a Noble Phantasm in their own rights, all holding a legend and a place in history, was overfilled with Alaya's prana. The blades became deadly, they became unstable, ready to explode at a moments notice. Then a thousand Broken Noble Phantasm's met the alternate Gilgamesh's collection.

It sounded like a million suns had exploded at once, and the light produced from the explosions probably rivalled that of a star.

A Noble Phantasm is a heroes greatest treasure, so only a fool would overfill it with prana to the point of explosion. But GILGAMESH was no ordinary hero; he had an infinite amount of weapons, enough prana to fill each and every one of them to the brim and had the motivation to sacrifice them as well. All in the name of protecting his garden. Afterall, he was Humanity's King.

"FUTILE!" Snarled Avatar Gilgamesh once the explosions had passed, revealing that he had been blown backwards from the explosion and had discarded his armour in the chaos afterwards (Although it was quickly reforming). A thin trail of black ichor dripped down his sneering forehead as Gilgamesh showed some genuine emotions. How dare _they _scratch him!

PENDRAGON appeared as suddenly as she had started, both of her weapons poised to plunge into the enemy's body. Two swords came to Gilgamesh's hands from his vault. The first was a chipped and rusted Gram, the prototype of Caliburn, while the second was the prototype for Excalibur. "DIE, DAMN YOU!" Cursed Gilgamesh, parrying PENDRAGON.

The two engaged in sword play, swinging their weapons fast enough for each weapon to be a blur. PENDRAGON was more skilled and had more experience in using her two weapons, and was used to using the holy properties of each sword to great effect to counter the dark curses coating Gilgamesh's weapons, while the Avatar had superior weapons (Based on how they were the prototypes, so older). Ultimately, after a second or two it was clear that PENDRAGON had the edge.

"Yet we all stand alone." Shouted EMIYA, nearing the end of the poem that encompassed the true nature and existence of every single version of EMIYA that had ever sworn itself to Alaya.

"NO!" Bellowed Gilgamesh, unable to let it end so soon. "ENKINDU!" His own divine chains emerged from portals surrounding him, ensnaring PENDRAGON and tying her in place just before she was able to inflict a fatal wound via cleaving his head clean off. "I won't let you win!"

Black veins cascaded through the air behind Gilgamesh as a black key materialised in his palm, which he pointed behind himself and turned into the veins, causing them to expand rapidly. A single weapon was pulled from the expanses of his vault. No, the vault existed solely to contain the weapon and its impossible radiance. All other treasures were but mere spare change before the sole gem in the collection. And now that weapon was in Avatar Gilgamesh's hand.

"So now we pray," Concluded EMIYA gravely, having charged up his technique and was ready to unleash it. "Truly Unlimited Blade Works." The world was swallowed by fire that did not burn, nor produced any sound, and left no trace of ashes behind it. Angra Mainyu's city faded away, replaced by another reality entirely.

XXXXXXXXXX

The White Beast of Gaia's new form was much slimmer and streamlined than its previous body, designed with more manoeuvrability involved than before when it required brute strength above all else. The bone layers had been expelled by its previous attack, leaving smooth plates now adorning its limbs, back and sides. Emerging from its head was a pointed, spiralling horn, just as sharp as its earlier bone sections, but was now even more deadly due to its length, giving Murder a much greater range to kill its enemies within. Sharp blades also sprung from its joints and covered a new, thin tail which it had grown, giving it the appearance of a mace.

Murder swung its new tail, almost creating a hurricane due to the displaced air left from its movements. A legion of freight trains crashed into Arturia's hastily brought up guard; she was pushed back dozens of metres as she fought to slow herself. Darkness from beneath her coated her already dripping blade and reinforced her already inhuman limbs, then she ground to a halt- the beast was stationary for one of the first times since the fight had begun.

WOOSH! SPLATTER! Arturia, already close to the appendage, cut through the gap between two plates in the tail using the empowered Excalibur Morgan, leaving the limb to clatter to the floor. Arturia followed through, cutting through the bone monuments littering the field (While the shadows of the battleground began to steadily consume them to remove them) to get another strike in.

Murder reacted, turning to plunge its new horn into the threat. Arthuria parried, unable to cut through or leave a dent in the weapon of death, and continued her charge. From the pre-existing bone, additional branches of sturdy, white material shot out, although were again deflected by the Avatar's superior reflexes. She had nearly reached the face, and was aiming to deliver a point blank Excali-blast to the inside of its maw, potentially one of its weakest points.

Primate Murder retched for a moment, then a ball of its condensed Decay Breath was puked out, travelling fast enough for even Arthuria to almost miss it. She lunged to one side and the projectile of rot only clipped her armour, although it immediately began to be corroded. The Avatar ignored it for a moment, proclaiming her attack instead. "EXCALIBUR!"

For a third time that fight the Black Sword of Ultimate Light was released, and delivered a blast of power which embodied the dual existence of good and evil. It might have been corrupted, but Excalibur Morgan still held the right of being the strongest holy sword, and as such it mattered not whether absolute good or evil energy powered it or was fired from it- it would still be the greatest holy weapon. So this dual natured wave of prana struck Murder right in the face.

"▄█▄█▄██▄█████████" The compressed soundwave blew Arturia away, throwing her with the force of a tornado. Midflight, she only just managed to dodge the full might of the bone pillar which had been mounted atop Murder's head, but had instead been fired like a torpedo, by firing a small blast of prana from her weapon to steer her journey through prana Burst.

The horn surpassed the supersonic barrier and plunged through a distant, dark mud spewing monument, leaving a deep hole running through it.

Barely minding the blast which had hit it directly, Murder came once more, its miraculous evolution having already progressed its state. Under other circumstances, Arturia might have been impressed by such a beast taking three attacks from Excalibur Morgan and not even faltering, but not this time.

"So persistent." She declared, finally hitting the ground (Her fall had been softened by the shadows awaiting her), viewing the now two legged being that was running towards her full speed. It was now similar to a monkey, with blades instead of fur and hammers instead of arms. Its previous crippling weakness at its mouth had been thoughtfully negated by Gaia, with its mouth now being guarded by rising bone from its chin, which acted as a second set of mammoth sized teeth.

One hammer descended on her fallen form, having enough force to level a hill instantly. The hammer rose, revealing that the Avatar of Evil had been saved by a cocoon of shadows wrapping itself around her, creating a protective shield from the impact.

"Come forth." Commanded Arturia. She hated to ask for help, seeing it as weak, but the stakes of the battle were to high for pride or honour, so she asked her Master to send her aid. At her request, the curses littering the field, having spawned as quickly as the Decay Breath had killed them, took physical form. Beasts of all forms, each just as inhuman as Primate Murder, rose from the darkness. Some had limbs and blades, some were small and compact, while some sported wings and terrifyingly large eyes. Others had tendrils and whips, or had clumped together to form stronger curses which took on greater sizes. All had two things in common: a devotion to both Angra Mainyu and its Avatars, and all radiated enough malevolence to knock out the bravest of men "Kill it."

Needing no further actions, the Evil Fiends leapt suicidally at Murder. Taking its attention off Arturia for a moment to swat aside the much smaller creatures with its oversized hammer fists, like an elephant swatting mosquito's away from its flank (Only with more spikes involved), it was slightly less prepared for Arturia to land a strike of her own, coating her Noble Phantasm in the cursed energy to form the outline of a giant sword, before swinging it at the thinnest segment of one of the hammer's.

"Vortigen:" Grunted Arturia in exertion as she swung a second time, cleaving through the same point with her oversized weapon to cut it clean off. "Hammer of the Vile King!"

Murder leapt back suddenly, clearing a great deal of space in a matter of seconds. With a roll of its shoulder blade, the remaining limb flung itself from the main body, rolling through many of the Evil Fiends. The limb crippled their numbers, though more rose to eagerly fight. In its place, and the place of the cut limb, appeared two thinner appendages, with bone blades jutting out of them, climaxing at a long blade at the end of the limb.

Arturia would have allowed a smile to grace her features if she still had the capacity too. It had brought a sword to this fight, and swords were something that the Avatar knew well. From Murder's shoulders, two additional limbs burst from the bone and muscle, each having a scythe of sharpest and natural edge jutting from it. From where the hips might be located on a human body (Though Murder was far too inhuman to obey regular rules), another two limbs emerged as well, both including scythes in their design as well.

Murder intoned its head in barely suppressed bloodlust, then charged. So did Arturia. For what could have been minutes or perhaps only seconds, a dance of death was conducted between the two as the larger entity sought to tear through the threat to the world with its six deadly weapons, while the Avatar weathered the charge and managed to parry and counter all six of the weapons trying to kill her at once. Arturia was truly a splendid swordswoman.

Murder had neglected the Evil Fiends amassing when it had focused on she whom had once been the King of Knights, and they had taken advantage of the time to clump together into several horrendously large Curses, each maybe half as tall as Murder now that it was standing tall on two legs. The darkness thrashing on the ground, which had been commanded earlier to try to pierce the thick hide of the White Beast from below but was unable to, switched goals, instead seeking to trip or ensnare the limb. By taking on a monkey like form it had taken on one key weakness- it no longer had four legs to keep it upright, but only two.

The three great Curse barrelled into one side of Murder, ignoring the bladed skin tearing even the curses apart. The combined might of this, plus the shadows trying to fell it, succeeded in tripping over the deadliest creature on the entire planet. Murder had never fallen before, being much larger than anything that could try to knock it over, so the experience was a new one.

THUD! An earthquake shook the ground upon the White Beast hitting the floor.

"Ensnare!" Commanded Arturia, readying herself to deliver her strongest attack yet. Even though it had fallen, she _still_ needed more time to prepare, if she wanted to deliver an attack great enough to slay the beast!

"▄██▄█████████" Primate Murder struggled, but the Curses given form wouldn't allow it to escape, even if they could only hold the monstrous strength back momentarily. The darkness beneath the earth also sprung out, pulling Murder down into the imaginary space that the darkness occupied. Murder wasn't going down easily though, already it was adapting to the situation.

"EX-" Avatar Arturia had no more time to charge, she would need to attack now before it could fully adapt. "CALIBUR!"

An attack capable of levelling Fuyuki City was fired from the edge of Excalibur Mordered, and its eerie darkness blanketed all in its path in an indestructible tsunami of curses, hatred and corrupted holy energy. It was lucky that Avatar Arthuria had pointed it away from the centre of what was once Fuyuki, else it was likely that the mountain Angra Mainyu's true body was buried under would have been levelled by the attack. Instead, miles of bleak landscape and wasteland were levelled and saturated in even more dark energy, turning the large expanse of land into a writhing field of shadows.

Surely Murder had fallen to an attack _that _deadly?

A whisper in the back of her mind, from the darkness of the world. A warning. The ground beneath Arturia gave way and a maw of vibrating saw like teeth burst from beneath her, ready to eat her whole as she fell into the lions den.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bright light shone, illuminating the dry, acrid land that had replaced the dark wasteland of Angra Mainyu's domain. Haze filled the world, obscuring the distant landscape from perception, while a rusty smell filled the air, along with a scent of ember's that was reminiscent of a blacksmith's forge. A rhythmic grinding sound could be heard periodically, originating from thousands of impossibly large gears gyrating in the skies, suspended there despite their massive size, as if they were part of the mechanism's in an unknown and universally large machine. Apart from the impossible landmarks hanging in the cloudy skies that would never see dawn, the most striking feature of this field was the hill at its centre, and the swords that it was littered with.

From the centre of the hill and stretching on infinitely, an impossible number of weapons were stabbed into the ground, like gravestones in a burial ground. Each weapon was unique, many mundane, although many more were swords of impossible beauty and splendour. This was the collection gathered from every single EMIYA: all the swords that each one had every seen, grasped or wielded. For this was the illusion that most versions of the cynical Faker had seen at their deaths, and it was a promise for them to carry on their duty and ideals, and it was the only source of pride still available to them.

This was Unlimited Blade Works, a piece of Magecraft bordering on Sorcery, and in some cases surpassing it in power. For it was a Reality Marble, a perception of the world so fundamentally different that it could override reality itself, if only temporarily. In here, he was the closest thing to a God, and not even Alaya, Gaia or Angra Mainyu could take that power away from him.

"Welcome to my soul." He announce gravely to both his allies and his enemy. "Tread carefully."

"Not bad, Faker." Concluded Counter Guardian GILGAMESH. "Now, lets finish this."

"NO!" Avatar Gilgamesh's composure had slipped, he refused to lose now. Even if in here his connection to Angra Mainyu had been severed, he had still been supplied with enough prana tear this measly world apart, and he still had his strongest weapon and his only true Noble Phantasm in his hand.

"How dare you stand against me! Against my Master!" Spat Gilgamesh in anger. "I am a King, and he is a God! You are but mere worms beneath us, futilely struggling to stop us from taking our rightful places as the rulers of this blood drenched garden!"

Ea, the Sword of Rupture, was a Noble Phantasm which existed before even the Earth's formation, and could barely even be described as a 'sword', since it existed before such a concept even existed. It would be more accurate to say that a sword was based on the ingrained fear that Humanity had of this very weapon capable of tearing the world asunder. As such, the weapon of dark, polished, unknown material from a dying star, with no regular edge and only a dull, crimson, cylindrical drill shaped pillar riddled with veins of midnight, had almost nothing in common with a regular blade.

"So all of you mongrels, die before me! Let me saturate the ground with your blood in the favour of my dark God!"

Ea's edge was segmented into three segments, and each segment began to rotate independently, spinning slowly at first, but began to pick up momentum as a gale picked up.

EMIYA said nothing, merely waved one hand and gestured for the swords surrounding him to bend to his will. Mimicking the actions of the two versions of the King of Heroes, a wall of blades blanketed the the area Gilgamesh was located. GILGAMESH followed the Faker whole heartedly, willing to put aside EMIYA's blatant disrespect for the treasures he copied for the sake of the fight, and opened his own Gate up to grasp the weapon he would need to back up EMIYA.

Red veins scattered through the air as GILGAMESH began the process of drawing his own version of Ea.

The Avatar of Evil roared "Wake up!" so Ea rotated furiously and emitted a spiralling vortex of energy vacant of any colour or description- absolute void. Even Noble Phantasm's of the quality that EMIYA had dropped, and in some cases wordlessly activated upon hitting the parched ground, were not on the level of Ea, and were easily repelled by the forces equivalent to the movement of tectonic plates.

Meanwhile, PENDRAGON was still trapped by the chains of unholy heaven that Gilgamesh had bound her with, despite her attempts to free herself. While activating the Reality Marble had cut off the Avatar from his eternal prana source, it had also cut her and the other Guardian's from their own. They were both disadvantaged, and unfortunately she did not have the strength to break them and cut down the heretic to humanity where he stood.

"RHO AIAS!" Commanded EMIYA. Unlimited Blade Works could not just duplicate swords, but also other artefacts. In this case, EMIYA pulled out a shield that had not previously been there, and activated it. Unlike the conceptual weapon version of this shield- which could only replicate the defence of the original shield by creating a seven fold Bounded Field to shield someone with the strength of seven fortress walls- this was literally _the _shield of Ajax, seen by a version of EMIYA that had been forced to kill a threat to humanity in ancient Greece, and had been modified by EMIYA's collective experience to also include the Conceptual Weapon's defence in it as well.

As such, the defence itself was seven folds greater, and when EMIYA activated it by declaring its name, the shield produced to shield himself and GILGAMESH was quite possibly the strongest defensive shield that Humanity could ever muster or _would _ever create.

"ENUMA ELISH!" Bellowed the Avatar, thrusting his 'sword' towards the enemy. Grinding at space itself with the thrust, Ea showed why it was known as an anti-world Noble Phantasm. The vary nature of the swing itself and the vortex of spiralling void was so powerful that it could pierce through the 'world' and reveal a slight crack to reveal even the Truth. The absolute Truth of everything.

It was not a concept meant to be viewed by mortal eyes, and after Ea had been corrupted by Angra Mainyu, this Truth was obscured, covered in a filter of evil which hid the actual meaning and distorted the Truth into that which is a Lie. In short, Avatar Gilgamesh's weapon was strong enough to punch through reality itself and trick it momentarily into assuming that the answer, the Truth of the World, was much different than it really was, allowing Absolute Evil to violate that which remained of what was left.

In the moment before the void vortex began to tear the Reality Marble apart into little pieces and crash into the barricaded form of GILGAMESH and EMIYA (And the chained form of PENDRAGON) even the king who was once said to have no heart felt fear. Just before the dark Lie struck here, PENDRAGON lamented that she had been taken out of the fight so soon, before she had been able to use her full abilities and powers. Alas, it was bad luck that she had been trapped by Gilgamesh, and she would just have to put her faith in the two remaining Guardian's to gain victory, even if her blades of Assured and Promised Victory were not there to lead them towards it.

Then the abyss tore through her like she was made of tissue paper, and she was returned to the nothingness from which all was formed.

And in the single second before the void met the impenetrable shield, the duo of blade users made their moves.

"Wake up..." Began Counter Guardian GILGAMESH quickly, urging his weapon to speed up faster and faster with the limited prana he was able to supply now that he had been cut off from Alaya.

"BREAK!" Commanded EMIYA, doing exactly what GILGAMESH had done earlier, and filled Rho Aias with all the prana he could spare, Breaking it to overpower its use in return for its destruction afterwards, while keeping enough prana to barely hold off the inevitable spread of the Void shredding his soul and allow it to survive what was coming...

The miracle of genesis finally hit the shield. The False Truth of the world was obviously superior and eroded the first layer of defence instantly, then shattered the second wall of defence with Angra Mainyu's view of the Truth of the World- that the world had no reason to exist and should fall- before piercing through the third barrier as well.

EMIYA's bones began to break, the sympathetic nature of the shield meaning that he was feeling every bit of damage and was forced to endure it, even as his reality continued to dissolve.

The fourth ring that covered the fiery heavens snapped, although it took slightly longer to do so.

More bones broke, while cracks began to appear on the body of the physical shield. It was going to be a close one.

Fifth gone. Shredded under the weight of existence.

"Nearly there!" Informed GILGAMESH, shouting to be heard above the whirlwind of his own 'blade's' movement. EMIYA ignored him there was no room for other thought. All he could do was fight through the mind numbing pain of viewing something so alien that even with the memories of every EMIYA he could not understand it. He would need to ensure GILGAMESH survived, and that his hill of swords lasted long enough to do that which needed to be done.

The sixth, after a long struggle, was obliterated.

EMIYA was now on his knees, while his shield was barely still in one piece. The mighty shield carried a hair length fracture running down its centre and was kept in one piece only by EMIYA's own tremendous force of will.

Ea's surge was nearly over though, survive but a bit longer and they would win, since it had not been fully powered due to lack of prana. Then again, GILGAMESH was in just the same boat, though he had even less time to charge.

The seventh wall of protection broke, and the void advanced, even as GILGAMESH prepared to thrust his sword in his own defiant counter. The one who once sported the name Shirou threw himself in front of the King of Heroes and Humanity, standing up tall and proud with his broken back and ruptured legs, and held the cracked and shattering Rho Aias like a life line. All that stood between them and the void was that physical shield, just barely holding the Truth off, and EMIYA's body.

EMIYA would throw even his body in the way if it bought even a millisecond. After all, the only reasons he had even activated his Reality Marble was to prevent Avatar Gilgamesh and Guardian GILGAMESH from negatively affecting the structure of the world if they were to use Ea, while cutting off the Avatar's connection to the Corruption so he could not heal or be restored and trapping him in a location where he could not flee. It was the only way to stop GILGAMESH, the path he had seen through his Eye of True Mind.

"ENUMA!" The Guardian, upon seeing his blade fully charged, bellowed out his command, thankful of the sacrifice the Faker was giving. It was time to claim victory. "ELISH!"

He thrust, and a vortex of crimson light which cut through the world to reveal the _actual _Truth was fired.

EMIYA smiled as both versions of the Truth clashed with one another and he was ripped away into nothingness between the two. At least he had been able to be a hero just one last time...

For almost an age the two definitions of the Truth fought one another in the pocket dimension which against all odds was still being held together with EMIYA's force of will from beyond the grave and his last acts of power, and then the superior Truth overpowered the other and the world was vanquished.

XXXXXXXXXX

The jaws of Gaia's Beast swallowed Avatar Arturia whole, and now the Servant of Angra Mainyu was quite literally in the belly of the beast. Perhaps normally one would consider getting swallowed to be a fatal injury, but Arturia was hardly ordinary, nor was the swallower ordinary either. No, Primate Murder was a being fundamentally inhuman.

There was no stomach or throat or anatomy within Murder's form, only a world within a world. If Gaia was the mind of the world which could only perceive through the usage of lesser beings to act as its senses, then Murder was a beast that acted as the weapon that Gaia would use to slay its enemies. They were one, Murder was of Gaia and Gaia was one with Murder.

So inside the White Beast, one could find a connection directly to Gaia. In a conceptual manner beyond that of human perception, Arturia was now in the sole place that could be considered the Will of the Worlds absolute domain.

A primordial swamp drenched in unknown, bubbling acid, with mysterious roots writhing like the appendages of some bizarre monstrosity and growths unlike any other, of colours indescribable and composition improbable. Swimming in the soup of creation swum a _thing_. Arturia didn't know what, but _something _was there. And it was large, impossibly large for the knee deep liquid. Then again, this was a world just as separated from common sense as any Reality Marble, and there was no guarantee that this place followed any natural laws of physics, with limits imposed only by the will of the world.

The Avatar was alone, the connection with her Master was gone. Before Gaia had been attacking Angra Mainyu's domain, but now it had the home advantage, while the sword user would need to be _very_ careful.

A shark like being of pure white colour not matching its actions erupted from the swamp, instilling a sense of surprise in that it swam through rock and ground as easily as it did the acid (Which could not pierce Arturia's thick armour). No longer did Primate Murder have any definite form or set shape; here in this world it could act as the full extension of Gaia's will and so embraced its purpose fully- adapting and changing instinctively, no longer needing such things as armour or skin as its entire body could evolve into whatever it needed whenever it needed.

No longer a shark, an eel. Lunging like the head of a spear, its barbed tongue darted out of its thin face as it leapt, tearing through the dark armour easily as Arturia lunged aside, cutting the spiked instrument off as it passed her. Another cut left a deep crevice through its flank, which quickly appeared to be pointless as the wounded area bubbled and swelled as the White Beast repaired the damage and shifted its form again.

Now a snake, its poisoned tail almost knocked over the Avatar, whom only just blocked it.

Next a lion, with tearing claws and acid spewing maw.

Fast! The scything, giant mantis' claws decapitated the space the once King of England had previously occupied. Arturia inflicted a wide swing across its maw-

Then was knocked back by the next form, a rhino with a thick, wide, shield like head which had hit like a mountain, throwing her through so much swampland so quickly that she lost the sense of direction.

She clambered to her feet. Where was it? Not around her, nor in front. No movement of swamp, so not arriving from ground or liquid, so had to be from-

A fly the size of a bus, with six wings and seven mouths, fell from the sky. Again, she barely managed to escape its furious attacks.

Again and again Murder shifted forms into increasingly deadly shapes as it attempted to strike her down, pursuing Arturia in a deadly game of tag that she was inevitably going to lose. Only her own skills allowed her to escape the rapidly adapting enemy. Alas, she could inflict no major damage, since anything inflicted would change a second later once Murder shifted its form.

To make matters worse, this was Gaia's domain, and Gaia was starting to take more of a role in the fight. In the ruins of Fuyuki she had used the Shadows to assist her in combat, and likewise this world inside Murder would bend to its will. Avatar Arturia was beginning to think that the entire world was more than likely Murder, and that her attempts to kill the main defence system in the body were pointless unless she could destroy a world. The form trying to kill her was more than likely just an avatar, its unnatural body's immune system.

She cursed the fact that Avatar Gilgamesh had gone to deal with the forces of Alaya instead - he would have been a perfect choice for this fight, seeing as he held an anti-world Noble Phantasm- as she dodged one of the roots which had tried to strike her from behind while Murder (Now a reptile of some sort) attacked savagely from the front. All Arturia had was her natural skills, the prana she had been provided by Angra Mainyu before she had been separated and her weapon, Excalibur Morgan, as well as the corruption that it contained within.

In a moment that could only be considered inspired, Arturia suddenly realised that even if she didn't have a weapon able to _kill _the world, she still had one that could _affect_ it.

Excalibur Morgan began to glow sinisterly, the corruption that had blackened it coated its surface. She didn't need to waste her limited reserves by inefficiently activating her Phantasm; all she needed was that which lurked inside it.

Letting it trail in the acidic waters, she allowed her power to begin to drip into the infinite expanse of swampland. Small splodges of inkiness appeared amongst the regular shades, almost unnoticeable, but then it began to spread. Ultimately Angra Mainyu's corruption was designed to spread and infect spiritual existences in particular, and now it was doing just what it had been created to do. Curse by bitter curse, the evils of the world began to spread through reality. Slowly at first, not even picked up by the enraged Gaia or the aggressive Murder (Considering Gaia's sole connection was to Murder, whom was consumed by bloodlust), the curses grew. If this world was Murder's body, and the enemy faced its immune system, then this was a virus.

Something terrible had been birthed into the ancient Eden that occupied Murder's being, and the seed that had been planted recently was quickly sprouting into something as beautiful and deadly as any rose of poisonous plant.

Only as the Corruption began to spread without Arturia's urgings or need for her to input any more curses as they reproduced and duplicated to fill the musty environment- only then did Murder and consequently Gaia realise what was happening. This was the very centre of Murder's existence, and part of it now belonged to Angra Mainyu and not the original master of this place.

Acid darkened, exotic trees died, the humid air dampened, and the environment screamed.

"▄▄▄████████████████████████████ ████████████" Primate Murder's roar of anguish released from every point in the swamp was loud enough for even the once King of England to flinch, meaning that Murder's lunge at her was not blocked, and consequently she was thrown to the floor with the behemoth mounted on top of her, dribbling its very potent and liquefied Decay Breath. The substance ate into her own body and existence, but the damage was already done. No amount of actions on Gaia's part could stop the chain reaction that she had started.

What had once happened to her when Angra Mainyu had destroyed her very nature and self and replaced it with its own curses was now repeating in the White Beast. Even as Murder screamed and willed for its world to try and purge the rapidly multiplying curses and as it annihilated the intruder in its existence, Murder knew. No matter how much it hated it, soon it would no longer be the Beast of Gaia, but the Beast of Angra Mainyu.

"Ex...calibur..." Finished Arthuria weakly, all of her remaining prana being drawn into her Noble Phatasm, enforcing its cursed and blackened nature. Then she swung with what remained of her not yet dissolved limbs, cutting into the ground beside her fallen form and unloading the full might of Excalibur Morgan into the earth, directing the might of the strongest holy sword into the very epicentre of Murder's inner environment.

The ground shook and the swamp water bubbled menacingly, and The still White Beast unloaded its most concentrated wave of Decay Breath onto the dying Avatar's form. Even as she was torn apart on a molecular and spiritual level by the absolute Authority to kill humans, Avatar Arturia died with what could be considered a content expression on her face, if viewed in the right light and circumstances.

Even if she had abandoned her duty and sunk willingly into the role as Angra Mainyu's weapon, she had still fulfilled her _new_ purpose. She had no reason to continue living once her Dark God had won, so perhaps oblivion now was welcome, since she could die having now fought and submitted the strongest of Gaia's forces, an achievement that even Avatar Gilgamesh could _not _claim to have done.

Then she was gone, and only the roaring form of the beast humanity had named Primate Murder remained, as its world and soul was slowly but surely devoured from the inside out, the sky collapsing amongst dark vapour and clouded water, stripping that which Murder had fought for and cutting its leash from the only force that it was motivated from, and reattaching it to one of human origin, something which it hated above all else.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsewhere, on a plane similar to one that a certain Magus Killer had boarded, another influential individual, his family and his most trusted workers was being hurried away from the mainland off the large island of Honshū, the largest landmass making up Japan, which also contained its capital city Tokyo.

Now, the land was uninhabitable, the Corruption having purged those that remained on its dark shores. In addition, the smallest of the four lands making up Japan, Shikoku, had also been claimed by the corruptions growth, dooming more. Kyūshū was losing the futile battle, with half of its areas taken. Hokkaidō was largely the best location to travel to, since it had only been tainted in its southern segments, which left it in the best position to escape, though there was no doubt that Hokkaidō would be unable to deal with all of the refugee's. It was so bad that the remains of the government were even considering turning to the other nations for help, though they would no doubt refuse.

Japan's problems had not stayed hidden for long; the world had been aware of the Corruption for far too long, and were too busy preparing themselves for if -when- the shadow spread to their own shores.

The Tohno family and its retainers had been able to escape with plenty of time, using the Tohno's vast wealth and private plane to leave, and were largely better off than most of the refugee's.

Makihisa Tohno, the silent head of the family, didn't speak to his 'family'. No, he simply stared resolutely out of the window of the jet, ignoring everyone else, bringing them out of necessity and need. He didn't particularly care for them one way or another, being a rather uncaring individual. However, like many of the inbred members of his family with the blood of Demons running in their veins, he suffered from bipolar disorder, leading to him having wide mood swings from his present emotion.

Unlike the others though, his violent actions were not due these conditions. No; behind his regular uncaring stance there lurked a certain inhumanity that he honestly couldn't care enough about to curb, whether it was there due to his personality or his biology, but it still remained. Makihisa _loved _the suffering of others; he was a regular old sadist, though he wasn't all about pain. He had his motivations and his goals to keep his tendencies away, and even when he leant towards the oni blood in him, he had his self control. Even so, the chaos that was spreading across the world was almost touchable in the air, and he loved it.

_'I wonder just how the world is going to change...' _The head of the house thought to himself.

His blood daughter, Akiha, cried out. He ignored her cries; she had always been weak. SHIKI would always be the next head of the household, she was merely a back up, in case he fell to his own demonic side. Besides her sat the boy also named Shiki, one he had only adopted due to the fact that he ironically had the same name as his own son, and because of his own unique blood.

"It'll be fine." The young boy consoled Akiha with a smile, although even she could see that he was just as worried.

As if to prove him wrong, a gale-force slammed into the plane, causing the standing attendant to fall to the floor and for Makihisa's daughter to let out another cry. "What's going on?"

A second blast of force rippled into the aircraft from a great distance away, shaking the vehicle further and making Akiha only cry out more.

"That," Answered the head of the family, speaking for the first time in what seemed forever. "Is the sensation of change."

And he was eagerly anticipating it.

XXXXXXXXXX

Avatar Gilgamesh looked down at his now mangled torso, barely recognising the twisted mess of torn flesh and the large gaping wound that encompassed most of his form. He fell, seeking to catch himself, but was unable to get a hold now that the entire left side of his body, including his arm, had been annihilated. He was surprised that he was still alive, considering how in the great clash between the Truth his own bleaker version was ultimately overpowered by the original.

_'No,'_ he corrected. _'Not alive; I haven't lived in a long time.'_

Either way, he had lost to his counter part, defeated by the other. And he doubted that even Angra Mainyu could heal the damage he had taken. One does not take an Enuma Elish head on and live, especially when it was not being held back, even if Enkinu the chains of heaven were used to block some of the damage.

"So this is the end." He said, bleeding black blood into the shadow ridden floor that was opening wide to swallow him. He was now no longer of use; Gilgamesh had been defeated, his weapon (Long thought unendable) destroyed by an attack of equal strength. Now, like any good predator, Angra Mainyu was going to cannibalise what remained of him, and he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. His dark god would win regardless, and even in death he would serve it.

XXXXXXXXXX

Time passed, and eventually the White Beast of Gaia stopped roaring and raging, its fate finally accepted. Arthuria's final actions had paid off; while Primate Murder's thick hide was able to repel the darkness, an attack from directly within it was not one that it was able to shrug off, nor was Gaia equipped to deal with it. The Black Beast was cowed, but still vicious. The Earth's champion was no longer a threat, and Gaia had none others able to brave the Corruption and escape its taint.

It sent them anyway. Angra Mainyu continued to violate the world on a fundamental level, and Gaia was effectively powerless to stop it. Bit by bit, Angra Mainyu gained ground over the world. Even though common sense dictated that a powerhouse like Gaia would be able to repel such an attack, a series of grand coincidences had left Angra Mainyu in a unique position. Its ability to corrupt and destroy spiritual entities limited what could be used to stop it without succumbing to it, its unlikely victory against both the Beasts of Alaya and Gaia meant that they were unable to send more agents to stop the new deity, while its newly stolen Beast would be able to demolish anything that did manage to survive the darkened field.

There was a reason why it took eight regular Counter Guardians to suppress the White Beast, and likewise the Black Beast was able to easily dispatch the few remaining Phantasmal Creatures that still dwelt in the world.

And so something unthinkable happened, something improbably unlikely. It took time, but Angra Mainyu had already been assaulting Gaia when its Avatars had been attacked, and now its work was nearly fulfilled. There was no doubt on the matter. Gaia- the will of the world- was dying, the conceptual injuries inflicted too great for it to recover from, while Angra Mainyu's power only grew.

With all of its efforts exhausted, its allies defeated or weak, desperate and raw in its new terror, Gaia accepted that it was dying, like all would do soon. Something unkillable was dying. While Gaia embodied the earth, the earth too embodied Gaia, and so the planet too was dying.

Plants were starting to stop growing, trees were falling, the water was no longer a safe haven for fish life, and every creature capable of making sound and that could sense what was happening cried out in anguish. Even the humans, far too removed from nature to interact with it, could tell that something irreversible was occurring besides the Corruptions appearance. The wind died and the clouds cleared, the ground shook and trembled, the production of mana (The greatest source of natural prana in the world) began to halt.

It was terrifying just how quickly the world was falling into disarray as Gaia was torn apart.

The world remembered though, in its last moments before All of the Evils in the World finished destroying it. It recalled just who had destroyed it, just what had doomed the world and everything that walked it. It was the humans. From them had the malevolence that powered Angra Mainyu come from. From them had the belief that created the deity originated. It was humans that had put the weight of the worlds sins on what had become Angra Mainyu. And most importantly, it was _humans _that had made the ritual which brought this destroyer of worlds into existence; it was they who had even dared summoning such a dark figure in the first place!

And so the world remembered, and it would never forget nor forgive. The world would bring-

What was the term humans used? Mutual destruction. If the world was dying, it would take the humans down with it, along with the damned Alaya that protected it.

The world was weak though; its time was up and its energy lost. If the world couldn't cull the parasites that had been pushing the world to its inevitable end since their evolution, then with the last of its power Gaia would call for something that _could_.

And then Gaia died, almost anticlimactically. The world would never be the same again.

XXXXXXXXXX

The death cry of the planet tore through the reaches of space, impossibly loud, on a scale that human hearing could never perceive but that those much higher could. In the dark and empty vacuum far away from the domain of Gaia and the threat that it was facing, existences stirred. Impossibly strong, inhuman, unexplainable- alien- in every sense of the world. Dormant for many years, not recognising the idea of time, they awoke to the pleading call of the Earth.

_**Terminate those that killed me. Slay the murders of the Earth, and purge those that dare desecrate my corpse.**_

One planet had cried for aid with its last breath, and in time the others would fulfil this plea. But there was no rush; the Arisotles had no human concept of time after all.

Rest assured, they _were _coming, and they would not be stopped, for they could not die.

XXXXXXXXXX

Arcueid Brunestud awoke for the first time in forever, not to hunt down the next incarnation of Roa like she normally only acted on, but instead to answer a cry for help. It was far too late for the last pure True Ancestor to help the world. But that which lurked in every True Ancestor, the Crimson Moon, could.

XXXXXXXXXX

Long ago, in an age long gone, when Gods walked the Earth and a Universal Language still united the people of the word, a planet had heard a call to arms. In response, a great _thing _was sent to planet Earth, with the given task to eliminate all humans, and had landed in the area that would one day be known as South America. Unfortunately it was _way _too early for the party, so had entered a state of hibernation up until the _promised day _arrived.

Now, upon hearing the cry of Gaia a second time, Type Mercury knew that it was now _the_ time. The spider amidst its crystal web stirred, its great form writhing in what a human might describe as anticipation. The Ultimate One began to mobilise...

XXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, another warrior was facing his own incoming demise. Avatar Gilgamesh was not the only king to ultimately lose. Perhaps the sacrifice of EMIYA and PENDRAGON had bought GILGAMESH the single chance to ultimately end the corrupted King of Heroes, but that didn't mean that the Guardian had escaped unscathed.

Like most users of Noble Phantasm's, GILGAMESH was vulnerable following his strongest attack, and seeing as he had _helpfully_ destroyed the reality he had been fighting in, Angra Mainyu was ready and waiting for when he emerged. The shadows had not been idle; GILGAMESH had been immediately trapped by the full might of all the Evils in the World, and even now that he had his connection with Alaya restored, and even after putting his full might into escaping, he was unable to break free. How long had he been there, his great might and divinity chewed upon as the Curses gradually sought to either break down his vast power or turn it for its own dark purpose? Gaia was dead, and Alaya was but one branch off the world, and suffice to say that without Gaia its power was much less.

In the end, GILGAMESH and the world had lost. Angra Mainyu had lost a pawn or two but gained something much better in return: victory. Gaia was dead, and with it the hopes of life continuing. Additionally, just like how the Corruption had claimed both Arthuria and the other Gilgamesh, that darkness was tainting him as well. He was unable to break free of the quickly created bindings, and so soon he knew that Angra Mainyu would gain a much better tool- one with much more experience and one whom was much more valuable than the one that it had lost to obtain him.

GILGAMESH smirked, while the tendrils gripping him seemed to take this as a challenge, tightening further. The Incarnated God had miscalculated though. GILGAMESH was nobodies pawn. In life he had loved humanity, seeing its potential as limitless. On his journey to obtain immortality he had often stared at the stars and the moon, wondering when Man would someday reach them, destroying even the Gods that crossed them.

And now due to the connection with Alaya, he knew that he had been right. Man had walked the face of the moon, and had grown into something beautiful. He had been right to take up the infant Alaya's offer; by fighting to protect his garden, he had allowed the bulb of Humanity that he had planted long ago to grow and spread into something quite remarkable. Perhaps Humanity wasn't perfect- with self destructive traits and inherent evil within them all- but he had put his faith in them, and now Angra Mainyu wanted to destroy that which made humans great. Sure, they sinned, but only in overcoming this inherent evil was Mankind truly beautiful.

If it thought it could use him as a pawn in the upheaval of this garden, then the deity was wrong. He was the first true king of a untied humanity, and he would refuse to take up arm against that which he had waded across an infinite number of battlefield's to protect. His pride could accept nothing else.

"Angra Mainyu," He began solemnly, smirk still in place. "If you think that you can squash Humanity, then you're wrong. My bulb was not a flower, but a weed. Even if you succeed and the world ends, I know that Humanity will live on, carry on, rise beyond even my own wild expectations." For GILGAMESH would put his faith in humans now. Even if he was not there to protect his garden, even if Alaya was no longer able to guard humanity from those that wished to prey on them, he had to believe that others would take on his role instead. That Humanity was ready to save itself, since apparently Alaya would no longer be able to.

"Humans will live on, and not even _you _may kill this belief which is held within every single mortals very existence. So choke on your victory, it will be short lived." Gaia had lost, and in this loss there was almost no chance of Humanity surviving, but Humanity still had a will to live. Alaya still existing, albeit barely, showed this. And GILGAMESH could still give one last chance for them to live on.

"Wake up." He commanded the blade still gripped in his hand for what was likely the last time, the one that was slowly being tainted but was matching up to the slow spread well. If GILGAMESH was going to die, he wasn't going to let it be by Angra Mainyu's hand, nor would he let his slayer off unscathed. "Enuma Elish!"

With force of will he opened his Gate and pulled out chains, which gripped his arms and moved them like a puppet with strings, acting against the Corruptions grip. With every last drip of power the Counter Guardian could obtain from the nearly comatose Alaya, he filled Ea with prana, activating it as it plunged into the ground by his feet.

The Truth able to destroy even the world itself tore Fuyuki apart from the point it stuck, its vast power being directed into the ground, right at Angra Mainyu. The Truth struck the dark god, and just like the previous two Guardian's, GILGAMESH was returned to nothing, along with the main form of the god lying under Mount Enzou.

XXXXXXXXXX

The Director stood in his office with his glass filled with wine alongside his lieutenant and the Marshall's. The Clock Tower had been put into a state of alarm, and its enigmatic leader was ready to act. But he did not.

"Director." Urged Barthomeloi, garbed in her combat attire, for what seemed like the tenth time to the old man. "When will we act!?"

"Soon." He shushed her once more. "Soon." He repeated. "When we have report of the results of the events of Fuyuki, only _then _will we act."

"Why?"

"You are still young, child." The legend reminded, despite the woman's actual age. All were children in the eyes of the Ancient One. "The Corruption will reveal the supernatural, but there may be no reason for us to act should it be defeated. You know as well as I do that should we act aggressively with our power without just cause, the world may unite against Magecraft users."

Lorelei huffed, causing the Director let out a croaky laugh. "Director-"

The Director staggered, as if hit with some force or impact. Glass slid from his shaky fingers and impacted with the floor, shattering and spilling vermilion liquid everywhere. Shouts erupted from the Mages of great power surrounding the Ancient One as he fell to his knees, hands pressed against his ears. Blood trickled through his fingers.

"Director!" This time instead of being uttered with eager annoyance, the Vice-Director's cry was tinged with concern. _'What could have possibly brought the strongest Magus on the planet to his knees?' _she thought as she rushed to his fallen form, a healing spell already prepared.

"I'm fine." The Director waved away her attempts to help him, instead rising to his feet on his own accord, blood still trailing from his lobes. "I just heard some... unfortunate news." He assessed those that stood before him, those that he had deemed worthy enough of respect and prestige, with the title of Marshall given only to those he approved of. He saw men and women of power, some he liked while others he only endured for their usefulness. All would listen to him though. All would follow him to the Root and back. Quite literally, should he ask.

"It is time." He stated, bringing a smile to his lieutenant's lips. "My men and woman, my Wizard Marshall's. We have been through much together, but now is the true test for us all. The reason I have gathered you, and the true purpose for why I formed the Mages Association in the first place, is simple. It was for this day, for Humanity to have one last defender. The end has arrived, my friends. Gaia has fallen, Alaya is reduced to but a mere shadow without its origin, and the Corruption has fallen into a deep hibernation, but more is to come. _They _come, and they _will _end us." The Director levelled his fierce gaze across those assembled, conveying the danger they were all in.

"Humanity will die unless it unites against Them, and will need every soldier and every bit of help that Magefraft can provide. We will futilely fight Them for as long as possible, and we will either die or we shall overcome the odds and survive. Lorelei," He addressed the stern woman. "Take your men and go. Same with the rest of you; you have your orders. Today is the beginning of that which is to come. May we all survive to see one another once again."

Through the window the stars shone brightly; mankind's struggles were nought under the intensity. If humanity would live to ever reach them was in the hands of the men and women who left the room, ready to face a population that had yet to realise how screwed they were.

XXXXXXXXXX

Shirou woke to the sounds of crying and shouts, to the barely muffled noise of disorder and chaos. He was in a white room, on a hospital bed, although due to the chaos the hospital was in, he h not yet been treated by any nurses. By the side of the bed was the man whom had such a brilliant smile. Shirou still wondered why he had been so happy...

"Hello." Greeted the man, with a tired smile.

"Hello." Replied Shirou blankly.

"What is your name, boy?"

"Shirou..." Shirou knew that he had a second name, but could not recall it. All he could remember was the touch of the darkness, the light, the smile and the name Shirou.

Well, Shirou." Began the man in the blood splattered trench coat. "You're family is probably dead." he said bluntly, but with as much sympathy as he could muster in his present emotional state.

"But you saved me."

"...Yes." He admitted. "Healed you too. And I have a responsibility to keep you alive. The hospital is busy in the aftermath, and I doubt that the government is in any fit state to care about orphans like you."

"Oh." Shirou accepted the fact with a nod, not showing any signs of caring.

"Would you like me to adopt you?" The man asked. "As things are, I could probably walk out of here with you and nobody would care. Things will be hard, but I'll look after you."

Shirou didn't care either way; far too broken to associate the issue with himself. "Okay." But he did remember this man's smile, and he _had _saved him. He wanted to stay with him, to find out the meaning behind it.

The man engulfed the injured boy in a loose hug, drawing the red haired youth closer to his chest. "You're now _Emiya _Shirou... and you'll be my son. And I'll look after you, the only person I was truly able to save."

Shirou had died in the grasps of the darkness, devoured by a spirit of evil until nothing but an empty husk had remained. But that blackness had been his incubator. In the twilight of the Holy Grail War, on the day that the world had died, against all odds Emiya Shirou had been born. And he would live to see that which was to come, and would have a grand role in the war to end all wars. A war against the Stars themselves.

**AN- Freaking hell, I think that this is the most awesome chapter I have ever written. Ever. And its only chapter TWO! We had some of the biggest badasses in the verse face off against one another, and there are still plenty of characters for me to use. I have high expectations for the badass moments in this fic... next chapter we can actually get into exploring this new dead world, a Land of Steel where the Notes cast is replaced with Shirou and his comrades. We'll probably have a few chapters to introduce the main players and explain the new setting/world, but after that we'll jump right back onto the Badass Train with the opening of the Final Grail War and the appearance of the Types (Though they may start appearing sooner).**

**Anyway, I'm sure that the Nasu Maniacs in the audience have many complaints with what had happened. No doubt that many feel that the events which occurred were unlikely and impossible, because they were, but as the Word of God I'm playing the 'Alternate Universe fic' card, so if things don't match canon rules this is purely due to plot purposes. Still, feel free to let me know what details you think are wrong purely so I can change it if I need to or try to avoid making such unneeded blunders in the future.**

**All things considered, the Nasuverse is large and much of its lore is shrouded in Japanese games and texts I will never be able to read due to damned translation woes, so some characters/events may end up OOC but I promise to to _try _to stick to canon, though I'm sure that the fights that are coming are incentive enough to keep reading. So then, enjoy the new Fate anime, leave a review or send me a PM if you feel like it and goodbye until next time. Undying Soul out. **


End file.
